Inflammation is a natural biological process, which constitutes a normal part of the response to injuries or infections. This process contributes to the protection of the organism against intern or extern aggressions. However, a dysfunction of the inflammation mechanisms, particularly a persistent or too abundant inflammation may cause important painful and life threatening diseases. Such diseases comprise skin disorders, bowel disorders, some neurological disorders, arthritis, autoimmune diseases . . . . Among them, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of disorders characterized by a chronic and relapsing inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The most common form of this group is the Crohn's disease. The pathogenesis involves an inappropriate and ongoing activation of the mucosal immune system driven by the presence of the intestinal microbiota in a genetically predisposed patient.
Now, several of these inflammatory diseases remain without treatment or without sufficient treatment. Thus, studying and finding new anti-inflammatory treatment strategies constitutes a major matter in medicine and biomedical research.
Propionibacterium freudenreichii is a beneficial bacterium used in the food industry as a vitamin producer, as a bio-preservative, as a cheese ripening starter and as a probiotic. It is known to adhere to intestinal epithelial cells and mucus, and to modulate important functions of the gut mucosa, including cell proliferation and immune response.
From U.S. Pat. No. 8,241,684, it was considered that Propionibacterium freudenreichii produces bifidogenic growth stimulators (BGSs) among which the active component thereof was 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (DHNA); said DHNA being known to have effects on promoting the growth of bifidobacteria and improving inflammatory conditions of the mucosa in IBDs as well as suppressing infiltration of activated immune cells.